Commemoration of the Irish Famine

I’ve followed a new group on Facebook, Holocausd na nGaedheal. Most of the posts are about the famine, how it affected those in Ireland and the causes behind the famine. One of the posts, lists all the places that will be commemorating the famine today, November 3, and tomorrow, November 4th. For the past year I have wanted to write about the famine and how it effected the area my family was from in County Cork and because of this one post, it is time for me to do so.

Possible Prevention

One thing that is very important to state, is that the famine could have been prevented. Yes, there was a blight on the potatoes. Potatoes were the staple of the native Irish persons life because the rest of the crops and animals were shipped out to England.

Let that sink in. If this food had stayed in Ireland, how many lives could have been saved. During the time of the famine, 1845 – 1852, over 1 million people starved to death and one million emigrated (see my post about the Jeanie Johnstonforinformation on one ship who brought emigrants to Canada). To this day, the population of Ireland has not recovered from this period in history.2

Mass Famine Graves

A great map that shows where the British troops were , where food was exported from and where the mass famine grave sites can be found.

In my travels across Ireland in 2015, we happened upon the mass grave site for the townland of Garravesoig, Dromtarriff, County Cork, Ireland.

It is obvious from the picture above that this mass grave site is not taken care of. To be honest, there was no way I could get any closer to the one stone that memorialized the people who were buried here. Nor can we tell how many were buried there, in that one year period.

Here is a close up of the inscription, which reads:

Erected to the memory of those who died
during the famine years 1847 – 1848and whose remains are buried here.May they rest in peace.

Because this occurred before Civil Registration there are no records that will tell us who died, unless there is anything listed in their local newspapers. Take some time to search for the word ‘blight’ or ‘blight death’ in the Irish Newspaper section and see what comes up.

Make sure to read tomorrows post, where I will share what I have learned about the famine and the area my family was from.